Bronx storefronts try to bounce back after fires

After two major fires destroyed a commercial strip on Bainbridge Avenue and East 204th Street the Norwood section of the Bronx, the city’s Department of Small Business Services is working with the displaced businesses to restore their storefronts. The agency is expediting insurance claims, connecting merchants with legal aid and restoring utilities, as well as offering relocation assistance because many of the owners of the shops don’t have the financial means to rebuild in the neighborhood. “Ideally, we’re hoping to restore the corridor where they’re located, but our goal is to help them land as softly as possible,” sad David Margalit, deputy commissioner at SBS.  Among those businesses destroyed in the commercial strip are a recently renovated bakery, a popular diner, a dentist’s office, a fish store and a butcher shop. However, the owners of Foodtown, a 6,500-square-foot supermarket which also burned down, are promising to rebuild in the neighborhood since it was the only supermarket serving the Norwood and nearby Bedford Park sections of the Bronx.  [Crain’s]

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